Prosperity
Through Growth is a
primer for reviving the UK economy, co-authored by some of our finest economic
minds: celebrated US economist Dr Arthur B. Laffer, inventor of the Laffer
curve; policy campaigner Matthew Elliott; businessman Michael Hintze; and
founder of the Centre for Economics and Business Research Douglas McWilliams.
It
begins by setting out the principles of ideal economic policy - the 'North
Star' of prosperity through growth - and applies them to the UK's current
position. The thinking takes account of the age of autocracy and AI, in which
political decisions in democracies are constrained and talented and
entrepreneurial people are increasingly mobile, making economic incentives even
more important.
The
final section draws on interviews with more than thirty economic
decision-makers from the worlds of business, politics and the civil service,
including five Prime Ministers and nine Chancellors. The interviews give
insights into the economic and political causes of low growth and provide a
strategy for implementing a pro-growth agenda.
Specially
commissioned research shows how the UK is forecast to slide down the league table
of GDP per capita over the next twenty-five years. The book argues that such a
slide is not inevitable and outlines a fully costed and modelled '24/7 Growth
Plan' to show how the decline can be averted.
About the Author :
Dr
Arthur B. Laffer,
founder of Laffer Associates, is known as 'The Father of Supply-Side
Economics'. He advised both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher on
fiscal policy. In 1999, Time named him one of 'the Century's Greatest
Minds' for creating the Laffer curve. He received the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 2019, the highest civilian honour awarded by the United States, for
his contributions to economics.
Matthew
Elliott is one of the
UK's foremost public policy thinkers, having set up numerous policy campaigns,
including the TaxPayers' Alliance in 2003. He has overseen two successful
national referendum campaigns - the NOtoAV campaign in 2011 and the Vote Leave
campaign in 2016 - and convened two influential policy commissions. He is
currently the co-founder and president of the Jobs Foundation, a charity which
champions the role of business as a force for good. Matthew is also a member of
the House of Lords, where he sits as Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell.
Michael
Hintze is a financier
and businessman. He has held positions in Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman
Sachs and Salomon Brothers, before founding CQS Investment Management and
Deltroit Asset Management. He also served as an officer in the Australian Army.
Lord Hintze's philanthropy spans contributions to the arts, religious
charities, military charities and education. He was made a Knight Commander of
the Order of St Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI and was subsequently elevated to
the rank of Knight Grand Cross. He was appointed a Member of the Order of
Australia in 2008 and was made a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II. In
2022, he was granted a life peerage by King Charles III and sits in the House
of Lords as Baron Hintze.
Douglas
McWilliams sold the
Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), the economics consultancy
that he had founded thirty-five years earlier, in autumn 2024 to a management
buyout. Cebr has become well known, especially for its World Economic League
Table published on Boxing Day each year. Before setting up Cebr, he had been
chief economic adviser to the CBI and chief economist for IBM UK. Douglas had
also chaired the Economics Committee of what is now called Business Europe in
Brussels. While running Cebr, he was also the Gresham Professor of Commerce,
and today he remains a member of the Growth Commission. Among his books, the
best known are The Flat White Economy, about the emerging UK tech
economy, and The Inequality Paradox, where he refutes Thomas Piketty's
theory of exploitation.
Review :
This plan could get Britain back on the path to prosperity The Times
